New App Helps Immigrants Deal With Complicated Tangle Of Forms

Jeremy Peskin and James Pittman have created Borderwise, an online product that prepares immigration applications.

Credit Jennifer Lynn / WHYY

For the 2 million people who move to the U.S. every year who wish to live and work here legally on a permanent basis, one big step involves paperwork — and lots of it. Filling out immigration forms can be tedious, confounding, and it comes at an expense.

In an effort to streamline the process, attorneys Jeremy Peskin and James Pittman have created Borderwise, a Philadelphia company with an app that prepares immigration applications based on answers to simple questions.

"If someone wants to apply for a green card, one thing they would do is go onto the government's website and try to figure out what forms they need to submit," Pittman said. "In order to put together a green card application, you'd need to fill out five or 10 of these forms."

Pittman said that there are good options and bad ones in terms of finding help with green cards, many of which involve the expensive process of finding an immigration attorney.

"I am Canadian, and I had been in the U.S. for about 10 years," Peskin said. After marrying an American citizen, Peskin tried to go through the process of getting a green card but found the online process unbearable.

"After about three hours of trying to find out exactly which forms I needed, I gave up and hired an immigration lawyer," Peskin said. That lawyer was Pittman.

The Borderwise app condenses the process into a simplified set of questions meant to cut back on the hassle of filling out numerous forms. The app is set up to show a much less cluttered screen as well.

"The first question that we ask is are you applying for a green card for yourself of a spouse," Peskin said. "The system intelligently responds to the answer, and the user is also alerted to potential problems with their application."

The actual immigration process can cause frustration to those seeking to legally become citizens, but it could easier with qualified help.

"Immigrants tend to need help, and if they rely upon individuals who are not qualified to give them advice, it can cause problems in the case," Pittman said. "There may be many people who with just the right amount of help would be able to handle most of the work themselves. The application we've developed would result in thousands of dollars of cost savings to your average immigrant."

The traditional narrative goes like this: After World War II, upper and middle class white families fled the inner cities for the suburbs. They were chasing the "American Dream" of white picket fences, two car garages and shopping centers you could drive to. The children of those Baby Boomers grew up, fought back and now, are moving back to the cities.

According to a new report from the Urban Land Institute's Terwilliger Center for Housing, the first part of that story is more true than the second part — so far.

Allentown’s Mayor Ed Pawlowski and Police Chief Keith Morris announced recently that people who are engaging in internet-based sales and purchases can now conduct their transactions at a designated parking spot in front of the police patrol station at 10th & Hamilton Street. The idea is to provide a place where people can buy or sell items with a heightened level of safety.